Informative ($161.60) notches stunning Salvator Mile upset
Informative stunned odds-on favorite Ny Traffic by rushing from last to first and pulling an 79-1 upset Saturday at Monmouth Park in the Grade 3, $150,000 Salvator Mile.
Ny Traffic, the 4-5 favorite in the one-mile dirt race, pressed Green Light Go’s pace and took a 1 1/2-length lead to the stretch call, but by then Informative, under jockey Jose Ferrer, was flying.
Last of 10 down the backstretch, Informative picked up speed past the half-mile pole, came to the three-eighths steadily passing horses, got a wide gap between rivals at the quarter pole, dove to the inside and surged past Ny Traffic in the final-half furlong to win by one length.
Off splits of 23.98 and 47.27, Informative was timed in 1:37.01 over a fast track, paying $161.60 to win. Galerio finished third as the Salvator Mile’s 2020 winner, Pirate’s Punch, never reached contention and checked in sixth.
In the Salvator Mile, as in all Monmouth races this season, jockeys weren’t allowed to use their whips to encourage their mounts. Ferrer, a savvy veteran, has thrived under Monmouth’s strict whip rule. He got his mount into a good rhythm and never let up.
“We were in last place in the backside, yes, but I saw everything happening in front of me,” Ferrer said. “I had a lot of horse underneath. I’ve ridden horses like this before that looked like they were hopeless, and they just pick it up for you. Everything opened up for me in the stretch. It was wide open to come through. I knew I had saved ground coming into the lane and I was thinking, ‘Let’s see what this horse has now.’ ”
He had plenty. Informative, a 4-year-old by Bodemeister out of Lucky Black, by Hard Spun, came into this race with two wins from 24 starts and allowance-race losses in his last three outings. He had improved finishing second May 15 at Pimlico, but it would’ve been hard for most people to see this coming. Not among that group, however, was trainer Uriah St Lewis.
“I expected this because this horse has been training so good,” said St Lewis, who trains Informative for Trin-Brook Stables. “The last race he ran at Pimlico he got blocked, checked and stopped and ran a huge number. I said to myself, ‘If he can run that number again, he can win,’ and he did. We were not intimidated by this field. That’s why we entered him. We thought he could win it.”
Few saw things the way St Lewis did. And many were wrong about the 2021 Salvator Mile.